The officials
said the gunmen were killed in the town of Beit Hanoun. Witnesses said two of
the dead were affiliated with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant
organisation linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, and
one with the militant Hamas.

Palestinian witnesses said Israeli
ambulances were seen moving in the area near a farm in the north-eastern part of
the town. They said heavy machine gun fire was heard throughout the
vicinity.

The Israeli army said it was checking the reports.

Israeli forces moved into Beit Hanoun on June 28 in an attempt to locate and
destroy Palestinian rocket launchers targeting southern Israel.

On June
27 a three-year-old boy and a 49-year-old man were killed in the Israeli city of
Sderot, one mile north of the Gaza border, when militants fired a home-made
Qassam rocket into a crowded residential area.

In other Gaza violence,
four Palestinians were wounded when Israeli troops entered the Khan Yunis
refugee camp, Palestinian witnesses said. The witnesses said troops destroyed
eight houses in the area.

An army spokesman said all the houses were
abandoned, and had been used by Palestinian militants to target Israeli forces
operating in the vicinity.